David Warner used strapping on hand to tamper with ball, reveals Alastair Cook

Former England skipper Alastair Cook has revealed Australia batsman David Warner once confessed to him that he used substances attached to the strapping on his hand to accelerate the deterioration of the ball during a first-class match.

In his book The Autobiography, Cook shared about the incident happened when he, along with other England players, shared a few drinks with the Australia team after the Steve Smith-led side won the Ashes 2017-18 series.

“David Warner, a couple of beers into his celebration, mentioned that he used substances attached to the strapping on his hand to accelerate the deterioration of the ball during a first-class match. I looked at Steve Smith who shot a glance that said: ‘Ooh, you shouldn’t have said that,” Cook wrote in the book.

Smith, along with Warner were handed a year ban for their involvement in the infamous Cape Town ball-tampering incident. Cameron Bancroft who, attempted to change the nature of the ball in that Test, was slapped with a 9-month ban.

The 34-year-old also wrote about how the Australians went too far with their win-at-all-costs culture.

“Stuart Broad sums it up pretty well and says they got the ball to reverse swing in that Ashes. Why change what you’ve been doing? Why suddenly use sandpaper? People know what was going on. But it’s been the best thing for Australian cricket because they realised it wasn’t acceptable. The win-at-all-costs culture they created isn’t what the Australian public needed or wanted. They’d gone too far.”

Cook retired from the longest format of the game after India’s tour of England in 2018.